Waiting in the Wings
by KatieBell70
Summary: How did Lavender Brown react to Ron and Hermione's 'touching moment' at the funeral? Neville knows how it feels to be on the outside looking in, and reaches out to help her. Slight HBP spoilers. One shot, with potential for a sequel


_Ron, he saw, was now holding Hermione and stroking her hair while she sobbed into his shoulder, tears dripping from the end of his own long nose._

Neville Longbottom, well aware that he was known as a sensitive young man, was certain that even Vincent Crabbe could not have witnessed the scene unfolding twenty feet away from him without emotion. What is more, because he had sort of a vested interest in the participants of said touching scene, his mind was spinning madly from the implications. For a thrilling, agonizing moment he imagined himself in Ron's place, holding and comforting the woman he loved.

It occurred to him that another person would more than likely be watching them, too. His eyes flew across the rows of chairs to pick her out of the rapidly dispersing crowd. She looked stricken, heartbroken. He knew the feeling well, and thought that for once he didn't have to be useless, bumbling Neville. Here was somebody who needed him, who had no one else to turn to. He leaned over to Luna and whispered, and she solicitously helped him rise from his chair. His quarry didn't even glance his way as he limped towards her purposefully.

"Lavender?" he asked in a gentle voice.

"Hmm?" She turned toward him in confusion, and a flash of irritation crossed her features. "Oh. Hi, Neville."

"Is everything all right?

Her irritation was more obvious now. "That's an odd question to ask at a funeral, isn't it?"

"I know that…I just thought…I mean I saw…Well, you were crying."

"Everybody was crying," she snapped.

"Yes, I know, but…After, just now, you seemed..." His eyebrows knit together in concern.

"What do you want, Neville? I have to go and pack." She started to turn away, but he stopped her with a touch on her arm.

"I saw them, too, Lavender. I know it must have been hard to watch. I thought…well Parvati is gone, and I thought you might like to talk about it."

"With _you_?"

"Yes." He looked at her steadily.

She gazed at him incredulously for a moment, but the kindness and sympathy in his eyes were her undoing. Her face crumpled, and she burst into tears. He reached out again to place his hand at the small of her back, and steered her toward a stone bench under the branches of a spreading tree. As they sat down together, he slid his hand hesitantly up to her shoulder, and patted awkwardly. She sobbed incoherently for a few moments, but eventually a clear sentence came out.

"I knew it, I just _knew_ she was trying to steal him from me!"

"Hermione?"

"It isn't enough that she had Krum and Harry, but now she has to have my Ron, too. She's horrible, really! She thinks she's so much better than the rest of us."

"Lavender, " he said in a patient voice.

She threw him an accusing glance. "Oh, I know you like her too, so don't try to defend her, Neville."

"Lavender…" His voice was similar to an exasperated parent.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Neville, I know I sound like a horrible, jealous hag, but, I just cared so much about him, and I don't see why she had to…"

"Lavender, stop it!" he said in an authoritative tone.

She stared at him in shock. "Neville!"

"You really don't see it, do you?"

"See what?"

He looked unflinchingly into her eyes. "He was _never_ yours, not really."

"Wha…What?"

He gestured toward the lawn. "Look at them, Lavender, really look at them, for goodness' sake!"

She raised her eyes across the way to find Ron, looking at Hermione with an expression of irritation while she tugged him away from the group of Ministry delegates. She smiled at him, and his eyes lit up, even as he grumbled at her.

"They've been madly in love with each other since second year," he pointed out, quietly.

"What? How do you know? Had he told you that, Neville?"

"Only in his sleep." He gave a small laugh. "But that's beside the point, isn't it? It's been written on their faces all along."

"But they _fight_, all the time… and what about Harry…and Krum?"

"Harry has never been an issue, and Krum, well he just got it all out in the open, didn't he?

"Oh, Neville…no, it can't be!"

But Lavender was not as clueless as she was generally believed to be. Neville watched the wheels turning in her mind, and noted the various changes in her expression as she began to see the events of the last few years in a different light. She turned to look at Neville's kind face with an expression of horror. "Well then, why on earth did he ever go out with me?"

He smiled compassionately and reached out to cover her hand with his own.

"Because I was there," she whispered, and her eyes welled up with tears. "Bastard!"

"Maybe. I mean, I'm sure he thought you were…well, you are…well, who wouldn't? But, anyway, at least you're not as angry at Hermione anymore."

"Says who?"

"Well...she did have to watch you get off with the love of her life for several months. It isn't one of the nicest feelings in the world, I promise you. Maybe you could be a little nicer to her."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," she muttered. "Oh, stop looking at me that way, Longbottom. I'm sure by the end of summer I will have gotten over it enough to be nice to her. Anyway, I won't have much choice, will I? We will be all alone in the dorm. She'd just better not be too smug about it."

"I'm sure you'll have a new boyfriend by then anyway."

"Like who?" She eyed him shrewdly.

"Half the boys in our year can't take their eyes off of you, Lavender. You'll have your pick." He patted her hand again.

She smiled and looked into his eyes, sympathetically. "This has got to be hard on you, too, Neville."

"What do you mean?' He turned away quickly.

"Well, this sort of dashes _your_ hopes, doesn't it?"

"What does?" He managed to meet her eyes again.

"Those two." She pointed to Ron and Hermione, who had been joined by Harry and were in the middle of a fervent discussion.

"I don't understand."

"Well this pretty much blows your chances with Granger, doesn't it?" She raised her eyebrows pointedly.

"Haven't you been listening? Nobody but Ron ever really had a chance with her."

"But that doesn't mean you didn't hope, or wish that things were different."

A blush quickly crept up his neck. "Er…. Yeah well, I'd better go get my trunk…" He arose awkwardly and started to walk away, shoulders slumped.

"Neville…"

He turned around. "Yes, Lavender?"

"Thank you for being so kind to me. You're really a very nice bloke. I'm sure you'll find a girl who deserves you more than _Hermione Granger_ does."

"Oh...well, thanks, then…" He started to walk away again, but turned back. "Err…Lavender? For the record, I've _never_ wanted Hermione. I like her and all, but she's too…bossy for me. I've had enough of that with my Gran, haven't I? The girl of my dreams is much…warmer than her."

She raised an eyebrow. "Ginny Weasley, then."

He looked at her pointedly. "And, um…I was hoping, when I noticed those two hugging on the lawn, twenty minutes ago…Well, it occurred to me that it just _might_ have just improved my…admittedly slim chances."

She sucked in her breath, and her eyes widened. He'd always known she wasn't as dumb as people said she was.

"Neville!" she exhaled. "I…"

"Think about it over the summer, will you, Lavender?"

She nodded, mutely, a look of wonder on her face.

He grinned and limped away, but his head was held a lot higher than usual, and he felt as if the weight of the world had lifted off his shoulders.

_**A/N: The first line in this is taken word for word from Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, which is, obviously, not mine, nor are the characters I am playing with. I hope you enjoyed my lttle tribute to Neville, who has more backbone than anyone around him realizes, and, I suspect, notices a lot more than most boys in his group. Please review, I would love to hear what you think.**_


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